LIVE
FRINGE THE DUCHAMP SYNDROME

14 – 15 January 2015, 8pm

Gallery Theatre, Basement

National Museum of Singapore

Rating

—(75 minutes with no intermission)

In English and Spanish with English surtitles

Biography of Artist

—Fringe Highlight

—World Premiere

*concessions for students, NSF & senior citizens

Price

$22 | $19*

Using stand-up routines, marionettes, toys, miniatures and an iRobot Roomba vacuum cleaner, Antonio Vega (Working on a Special Day), performs this story about New York, loneliness, art, and one immigrant's version of the American dream, but most importantly, The Duchamp Syndrome is the story of our innate desire to make our mothers proud.

 

Juan, an imaginative Mexican janitor in New York feels so lonely that he starts making his own friends, literally.  Juan becomes obsessed with the world of stand-up comedy and starts writing and practising his own comedic routines aided by Tony, a foul-mouthed cockroach with amazing timing and a smooth delivery. Things get complicated when Juan's mother gets a tourist visa and announces she is coming to witness her son's success.

 

View their Hello Video

“A simple yet powerful story coupled with dedicated actors who believe in theatre’s potential to change the world: one play at a time.”

– Rebecca Wong, Popspoken, on Working on a Special Day

 

 

“Emotionally charged, cohesive, clear and confronting enough to keep us on our toes.”

– Stephen House, Aussietheatre.com, on Working on a Special Day

Based in Mexico City, Por Piedad Teatro has established itself as a creatively relevant company by developing meaningful and profound theatre that places specific emphasis on quality, cutting-edge, contemporary international plays. The company seeks to create a bridge of artistic collaboration, generating links at every level by opening means of communication that allow for mutual understanding.

 

El Trapo Teatro is a company created in 2013 by Antonio Vega to develop original high quality, risk taking experimental new plays by using a mixture of theatrical languages and techniques.

 

The Play Company was formed in New York to address the community’s lack of access to plays from other parts of the world, and to promote theatre as a means to engage with the ideas, issues and artists that shape our time.  In 2007, it received an OBIE Theatre Grant Award for its contribution to the Off-Broadway theatre community.

RELATIONSHIP TO ART & LOSS

The Duchamp Syndrome is the story of a lonely immigrant in New York. All immigrants are suffering some sort of loss; Loss of identity, loss of self-esteem, loss of quality and quantity time with their families... It is also unavoidable that every person in New York is also lost at times... The big city is a monster that can make you feel minuscule, adrift in an ocean of people. People in New York are also never far from art... Art in the streets, galleries, shops and museums... The main character in this story is suffering a complicated case of the "migratory shrinking syndrome"; feeling completely at loss in the city, while at the same time suffering a chronic case of the "Duchamp Syndrome"; a condition that forces you to redefine your old concepts about art.

Por Piedad Teatro | El Trapo Teatro | The Play Company (Mexico | USA)

www.porpiedadteatro.org | www.playco.org

ADVISORY 16

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